


The Ghost of Christmas Future

by TheDoctorAndRiversArmyOfPeppers



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-01 23:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13305378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorAndRiversArmyOfPeppers/pseuds/TheDoctorAndRiversArmyOfPeppers
Summary: River rolled her eyes fondly as he put a sparking wire in the wrong connection.





	The Ghost of Christmas Future

River dragged the huge tree into the control room by its bags handles. It had been stored in the TARDIS since last Christmas, in a room with considerable dust problems.

She looked down the stairs to the control platform, where she saw the Doctor fiddling about with the wiring. He had one of the console segments pulled out, placed precariously on the edge of its usual setting. It would've fallen had he not been leaning on it.

"What are you even doing?" River laughed, amused.

"Oh, hello, dear! I didn't know you were there," he looked up, delighted. "I'm syncing the phone with the voice interface, so, if the person I'm talking to has an entry in the TARDIS data bank, I can see them as well as hear them."

"Oh, that's a good idea!" River grinned. "If you have a minute, could you give me a hand with this?"

It was then that the Doctor noticed the bagged Christmas tree at her feet.

"And then there are the ornaments in storeroom eighty-three," she continued.

"Alright, dear," he smiled. "Let me just make this safe and I'll be right with you."

River rolled her eyes fondly as he put a sparking wire in the wrong connection.

 

 

It didn't take them long to put the Christmas tree up in the cottage. The living room was now in disarray, but they could sort that out later.

The Doctor smiled sleepily at the twinkly lights and other decorations. He hated putting them up but loved the look of them once they were done.

The fire was crackling, and its warm flickering was lulling him off to sleep. His eyes had just fluttered shut when River burst through the door.

He was startled awake by the loud clunk of her using her elbow to turn the handle. She was carrying them each a mug of tea, and that brightened him up immeasurably. She put the mugs on the coffee table and sat next to him on the sofa.

River admired the look of him in the fires flickering light. It suited him well. 

"Thanks for the tea," the Doctor grinned, but was prevented from taking a sip by her lips pressing against his.

She kissed him gently at first, but gradually became more and more forceful. When she came up for air, she shifted onto his lap.

The Doctor was not complaining in the slightest. He tugged her dress off clumsily, tossing it into the pile of bauble wrapping. She gasped at the feeling of his warm hands on her body as he clutched her sides tightly. Then, without warning, the Doctor leant over to lie down on the sofa, pulling her on top of him.

The rest of the evening passed in pure bliss.

Their tea was cold by the time they remembered it was there.

 

 

The next 'morning' came along, as black as the night that preceded it.

River woke to the shrill shriek of the bedside telephone. She grumbled into her pillow, too drowsy to do anything about it.

She lifted her head up, with monumental effort, to see if she could get the Doctor to answer the bloody thing. He wasn't there but his side of the bed was still warm, so he hadn't been gone long.

River sighed. She guessed it'd have to be her that did the honours, then. She really wasn't in the mood for it. She hadn't even had her coffee yet.

She sat up properly, shrugged on her husband's hoodie, and answered the phone.

"Hello?!" the sleepy woman allowed more than a hint of irritability into her tone.

"Hello, dear," came the slightly terrified, Scottish accented reply.

She couldn't explain why, but River felt her hearts seize and a feeling of dread overtake her.

"Why are you phoning? What happened?"

"Quite a lot. It's after Darillium for me, River. A long time after," the Doctor told her wearily.

"Oh, sweetie," her hearts broke for him.

"And, well... I'm dying."

She sat upright, clutching the phone tightly in her fist.

"You're what!" River asked, trying not to panic.

"I got attacked by Cybermen, then I blew them up. And myself. A bit. It's nothing, really. It's okay. Time to pack all this in. I just had to talk to you before I go. I've got some things I'd like to say."

"No, hold on," River butted in. "You've got regeneration energy, you said..."

"I'm holding it off. I'm refusing it."

"Don't you _dare!"_

"What else is there, River? Everything I ever had to live for is gone. There's nothing left but an empty battlefield with only me left standing to count the bodies, and I can't do it any more. I've lived too long. And that is okay."

"It's very far from okay."

"No, wait. There's so much I want to say to you, and not much time left to say it. I just wanted to let you know that, when you are right now, you are giving me some of my most treasured memories. You were among the very best parts of my long, old life, and made it worth living just by being in it. I was very lucky to know you," he paused. "It was hell, you know. Moving on after you were gone. I kept seeing you everywhere. In the kitchen, in the bath, in our bed, up sodding trees! And it broke my hearts every time when I realised you weren't there. I miss you and I wish you were here. And for being everything that you were to me, thank you."

River was sobbing down the line by this point, and she could hear that he was crying himself.

"No. I should be thanking _you!_  You gave me so much more than I have ever have given you. I never deserved... _"_  

"You really believe that, don't you? I hope you understand by morning. You gave me everything. Nothing can top that. That's what I'm trying to tell you. You gave me your hearts, and centuries of love and affection, even when I didn't deserve it. Which, let's be honest, was always. You've been saving my life since before I knew you, or that I even needed to be saved. You saved me in more ways than I thought possible, and I will forever be in your debt. I knew, beyond doubt, that you loved me from the beginning. You never had that assurance yourself. I hope you know how sorry I am for that. But it just goes to show that you are the most remarkable woman I have ever come across, and I will always love you."

River was wiping frantically at her tears, only to let more tears fall, rendering the whole exercise pointless.

"River? Are you still there?" came his concerned voice from the other end of the line.

"Yeah... yes, I'm here," she answered. "I want to say the same back to you, but I can't seem to find the words. Know I mean it at least."

"Oh, I do. You were very clear, back when we left Darillium," he assured her. "You made no secret of it."

"Good," a smile tugged at River's lips. "So do something for me."

"Anything."

"Regenerate. Go on. Have adventures and make new friends. And should you stumble across a way for me to escape my fate, then come for me."

The Doctor was quiet for a short while on the other end of the phone, and River could feel her hearts pounding in her chest.

"Okay..." he said finally, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay. I'll keep living for you, if that's what you want. And I won't give up on you, either. If there's a way to save you, I'll find it."

"Thank you," grateful tears cascaded down River's face as the relief washed through her. "But if you don't, then move on and be happy. Would you do that for me?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said tearfully.

River could tell he didn't mean it, but let him think she believed him.

"Thank you, you have no idea how much that means," she told him. "And since we're both here, play for me one last time."

River smiled sadly as the electric guitars chords sounded through the phone.

 

 

The Doctor pressed the button on the console to end the call, and the image of River flashed out of existence. He stood, staring at where she'd just been, willing her to come back. But it was no use.

Not yet.

The Doctor pulled a lever to dematirialize, then one of the screens around the time rotor flashed on to show a distress call the TARDIS had picked up.

"Oh, there it is. Silly, old Universe. The more I save it, the more it needs saving."

At least he was going to go out to his theme tune.

"Well, I suppose one more lifetime won't kill anyone," his hand began to glow with regeneration energy. "Well, except me."

 

 

The younger Twelfth Doctor found River a few minutes later, curled up on their bed in his hoodie, crying her eyes out.

"What's wrong, love?" he asked worriedly.

River jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Nothing, sweetie," she forced out, slowly sitting up. "Just spoilers."

The Doctor looked as if he were about to protest, but then thought better of it.

He climbed into bed with her, pulled the covers over them both, and held her until after she stopped crying.

River sobbed into his shirt, wondering how he could possibly think he'd given her less than she'd given him. She would never find an answer.

She just hoped that, wherever he was, her future Doctor was alive and happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. :)


End file.
